OUT THERE: ROME

OUT THERE: ROME; Mondo Cane

By Alan Cowell

Published: October 10, 1993

ROME—
You arrive at the house, and when you ring the bell the chime becomes a howl. A manservant answers the door, a Groucho Marx look-alike who says, in mockery of the archetypal British butler, "You screamed?".

You're in the world, or at least the home, of Dylan Dog, comic-book antihero, pursuer of ghoulish phenomena, and best-kept secret of the Italian cult world.

Since they first appeared, in 1986, the comic-book escapades of Dylan Dog (who is not, in fact, a dog, but a rather handsome Englishman) have become obsessive reading for hundreds of thousands of young Italians drawn to his ennui, his ironic self-deflation and the gruesome violence he attracts.

Each month, Sergio Bonelli Editore, a Milan publishing house, puts out a new 100-page Dylan Dog paperback and two reprints of back issues. Print-run: around 700,000. Price: 2,500 lire, or about $1.60.

Early copies of the black-and-white serial have become collectors' items. Each year in Milan the publishers sponsor a movie series called "The Dylan Dog Horrorfest." Mention Dylan Dog to Italian teenagers -- and a few people beyond their teens -- and a great many will produce the comic book from their book bags or briefcases. So who is Dylan Dog?

First of all, the name. Mr. Bonelli says it relates more to Dylan Thomas, the poet (who wrote "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog"), than to Bob Dylan, the singer. "It was a provisional name, but it sounded right and it stuck," he said.

Dylan (pronounced in Italian DIE-lan) Dog is probably in his late 20's or his 30's, is lank and disheveled, with none of the "bella figura" dress sense of his Italian contemporaries. He lives at 7 Craven Road, London.

Dylan Dog's job description is "investigator of nightmares" and he is confronted with a variety of supernatural phenomena familiar to a certain breed of movie buff -- zombies and vampires and sundry ghouls.

Dylan Dog routinely encounters mortal peril, and wisecracks his way in corny fashion through the surrealism of the script. His assistant and butler, who not only looks like Groucho Marx but also goes by that name, says: "When I was a kid, my parents moved 12 times. But I always managed to catch up with them."

Dylan Dog is the creation of a writer and recluse, Tiziano Sclavi, 40, who never gives interviews and lives somewhere in the Italian countryside. Drawings are provided by a team of illustrators hired by the publishers.

Despite Mr. Sclavi's reticence, one magazine claims to have extracted a self-descriptive comment from him: "I am not Dylan or Groucho. I am the monsters."

Who reads Dylan Dog?

"Our audience is between 13 and 25 years old, and the most intense readership is between 17 and 20 years old," said Decio Canzio, a director of the publishing house. "People who read Dylan Dog have a high school diploma, and many are in university or are young professionals."

And why do they read it? "The figure of Dylan Dog shares the feelings and the choices of teen-agers," Mr. Canzio said.

One reader, Alessandro Aflitto, 24, a moped messenger in Rome, said he likes Dylan Dog "because of his habits, the car he drives, the fact that he's always looking for work, for money, the whole thing."

Dylan Dog is, Mr. Bonelli says, "a very Italian phenomenon." What's surprising is that such a home-grown product has broken through the mists of Americana that swirl through Italy's pop culture: the author chose an English character and setting to add an exotic touch to his narrative. But it has caught on in Italy, where the favored headgear for the moped set is a Yankees cap, the movies that win the box-office ratings are mostly American imports, and the top-selling adult comic strip is a western called "Tex."

While the reclusive Mr. Sclavi has written about 20 books -- a mixture of thrillers, science fiction, fables and horror stories -- none of his other writing has achieved the acclaim of the Dylan Dog books.

But one, "Dellamorte Dellamore" ("Of Death and Love"), published in 1983, may be headed for renown, because it is being made into a movie. It stars the British actor Rupert Everett, 34, who looks uncannily like Dylan Dog.

That is no accident.

Tilde Corsi, a co-producer of the movie, said that Mr. Sclavi was once asked by the illustrators what he would like Dylan Dog to look like. Having seen a movie in which Rupert Everett appeared, Mr. Sclavi replied that he should look "like Rupert Everett." And so he does.

When it came to casting the $4 million movie earlier this year, Mrs. Corsi said, Mr. Everett was a natural for the starring role of Franco Dellamorte, a graveyard caretaker portrayed in the movie's publicity as the forerunner to Dylan Dog.

"I'm the role model for Dylan Dog," Mr. Everett said, though he acknowledged that the character he played in the ironic, self-mocking movie is a "sicko."

The movie is set for release next spring, although, Mrs. Corsi said, it is not yet clear if it will be released to theaters in the United States.

It is also not clear whether the comic strip itself will be transplanted. Only now is Dylan Dog being translated into French, and maybe English, for American distribution.

"At the moment, we are talking and waiting for U.S. publication," Mr. Bonelli said. "It should have been months ago." But for the moment, it's in the kind of limbo Dylan Dog would probably take in his stride.

Photos: The character Dylan Dog is actually a handsome Englishman.; Rupert Everett, who resembles Dylan Dog (no accident), in the film "Dellamorte Dellamore." (Ram Studio)